


Selfless

by retrinazambrano



Series: OQ Fix It Week [2]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M, Outlaw Queen Fix It Week
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-23
Updated: 2017-10-23
Packaged: 2020-04-06 13:57:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 585
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19064068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/retrinazambrano/pseuds/retrinazambrano
Summary: The most Zelena ever did for anyone other than herself.





	Selfless

**Author's Note:**

> For OQ Fix It Week, day 1: Robin never died.

Regina sees the scene often when she closes her eyes and brings her beloved closer; Robin moving in front of her, blocking her from the assured fate the Olympian crystal has in store for her.

That's Robin though; so quick to put others before himself — Regina (and Henry and Roland) at the top of that long list. She grips onto his arm and tries her best to jostle him out of the way to accept what she only deserves, but he's standing rigid.

The light from the object is almost blinding, though she can't bear to close her eyes as she clutches onto the back of Robin's jacket in one last attempt to move him aside.

The voice of a certain Wicked Witch of the West distracts Hades and, despite Regina's pained plea, the light strikes Zelena.

... but not before she's deflected the spell so it bounces back, hitting Hades square in the chest, reducing him to nothing but ash, his soul nothing more than a pale grey wisp of hopelessness.

Zelena sinks to the ground too, startled, eyes wide in shock, as the spell ravages her body - she may have managed to mirror the attack, but she couldn't stop it from ending her too.

The pair rush to her side, Regina's eyes full of tears as she cradles her sister's head in her arms, Robin alongside her, his hand on Regina's back.

 _Look after my baby_ , she whispers. _You're all she's got now._ It hurts to hear, knowing all the despicable things that Zelena has done just to get revenge on a sister who had no control over her upbringing and, as the pain of hearing a reference to her niece subsides to a nagging ache, Regina focuses in on a single word.

My. Regina searches her sister's face for an explanation, but she merely smiles, reaching up to cradle Regina's cheek, her fingers ice cold against the warm skin. _Hades. She is Hades' daughter. She hasn't anyone else. Please promise you'll look after her._

Neither Robin nor Regina should feel relief at a time such as this, but they do, along with pity, both at Zelena's plight and the fact she felt the need to lie about something so massive to ruin lives, just to make herself feel better.

But that girl, so innocent, unaware and unwilling in her mother's plot is her flesh and blood, so Regina smiles down at her sister with a pledge that she would _always _look after the little girl. _Always.___

__Zelena looks between the two of them before her, her eyes dropping closed and her soul lifts from her body, appropriately green, with a serene smile, then disappears before their very eyes._ _

__She's alive. Regina sucks in a deep, silent breath, glancing over at the crib, holding her precious niece before curling back into Robin's warm, sleeping form, silently thanking her sister for her final act of selflessness, but also Robin for the sacrifice he almost had to make, that she still feels she doesn't deserve._ _

__He'd told her he'd do it again and again, that he would never change his decision to save her. In the torturous nights that followed, he would console her and say that she's alive. She's alive and that's all he wants. It's something she repeats, that she would take a bullet or a death spell in his place, but he silences her with kisses, putting her hand over his beating heart, repeating that he's alive. He's alive._ _

__She exhales._ _

__They're_ alive. _


End file.
